This invention relates to an electrical connector and more particularly to an electrical connector for flex circuits.
Electrical connectors commonly provide convenient plugging type terminations for electrical cables including flex circuits. An electrical connector for a flex circuit is elongated and houses a multitude of parallel and evenly spaced terminals pre-crimped to the conductors of the flex circuit. The terminals project longitudinally from and planar to the flex circuit. Because the terminals are actually crimped about the conductors to the substrate material of the flex circuit itself, movement of the terminals relative to each other is very limited and lengthwise movement is restricted altogether. For this reason, and unlike separately insulated wires of a cable, all of the flex circuit terminals must be inserted into a core or female portion of an electrical connector in unison. This means the leading or free end of each terminal is first inserted into individual cavities within the core from a lengthwise direction of the cavity. The cavity is generally perpendicular to the longitude of the connector. Once the leading end of the terminal group is inserted, the remaining portion of every terminal is pushed into the cavity in unison. Unfortunately, aligning the terminal ends to the cavities in unison is difficult and time consuming. Furthermore, pushing all of the terminals into the cavities in unison is prone to damage the flex circuit.
Accordingly, the present invention is an electrical connector having a core shrouded by a housing when assembled. The core has a peripheral surface extending between a contact surface and a conductor surface. A plurality of cells are spaced along the peripheral surface and extend between the contact surface and the conductor surface. Each cell has an elongated groove exposed longitudinally through the peripheral surface. The ends of the groove are exposed through the contact surface and the conductor surface. The terminals are inserted laterally into the elongated grooves, preferably with a slight press fit.
The housing has a peripheral wall extending between a conductor edge and a contact edge. The conductor edge defines a conductor opening and the contact edge defines a contact opening. After all of the terminals are press fitted into the elongated grooves of the core, the core is inserted through the conductor opening of the housing. When assembled, the contact surface is exposed through the contact opening of the housing. An inner surface of the housing engages the peripheral surface of the core thereby assuring the terminals are held within the elongated grooves.
Preferably each cell of the core has a recess communicating with the groove. Mating with the recess is a tab projecting perpendicularly from the terminal. The tab prevents lengthwise movement of the terminal with respect to the groove of the core. Also preventing lengthwise movement of the terminal with respect to the core are conductor and contact shoulders of the cell. An enlarged contact end of the terminal is disposed between the shoulders within the groove. The shoulders thereby provide lengthwise placement of the terminal with respect to the core.
A feature of the invention is the ability to side load a plurality of terminals crimped to a flex circuit into a core of an electrical connector thereby reducing the amount of time necessary to assemble the electrical connector and limiting the amount of stress placed on the flex circuit during assembly.
These and other objects features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.